2012-10-06 - Invader Skrull: The Invaders Get Invaded 1 - Justice League
Captain America and Wonder Woman worked together closely after the Skrull attack on the Watchtower to get this plan together. On the other hand, Tony Stark and Mr. Fantastic were working close together to through a hiccup in the invisibile field that Iron Man could not get through when he discovered the source of the signal. The Avengers are supposed to be sneaking in to attack with that weapon, while the Justice Leaguers gather on the Moon. Green Lantern Natu is there, standing upon the moon as she looks out into space. She works to hide her worries and concerns. Each team member has a green communicator to permit them to communicate with everyone - including Natu - while in space on a secure channel that the Skrull cannot be hacking. The Justice League has assembled. The time for their strike has arrived. Diana awaits with the rest of the available Leaguers, those who can still fly and fight. They will save thier planet or die trying. In her place as the League's tactician she has helped plot the strike, but she will be letting Superman lead it, his ability to improvise and inpsire far beyond her own. "Everyone, report in as ready." Superman stands on the surface of the moon. A place that he has been many, many times. It was a place that he used to think and work over things when the hustle and bustle of Earth got to him. Now he stands with a purpose, looking to stop the meanace that is plaguing his adoptive homeworld. He wasn't present when the Watchtower was infiltrated and attacked, and he was going to make sure that he got a little payback for his comrades that were on the recieving end of that mess. "Superman, ready." He states plainly. Captain Marvel returns after having recovered his strength in the Rock of Eternity. The Big Red Cheese flies up from the little blue planet and heads over to assume a flosating orbit by the Watchtower to stand guard on it. He can't help but wince at the damage that the station as accrewed because of him. He rubs his neck a bit at the memory of just how heavy that thing is, "Well.. lets hope I never have to do that again." he thinks to himself and watches various people going about their work. He looks over at the Sun and then back to Earth thankful that he's at least here after school hours. In the distance is the immense Skrull battleship, with probably thousands of Skrulls within - not to mention its formidable outer weapons. Then, of course, there's the problem of all the hostages who might still be in there or, at the very least, whom the Skrulls have the locations of - making something straightforward as 'blowing up the ship' impractical. Even if members of this group would even be willing to do something like that anyway. Natu hears a message from her ring in Kyle's voice: << You're on Natu. >> Natu responds back, << Mission active. >> She then says into her green comlink to Superman, "It is time to attack." She starts to fly up from the moon's surface, the green energy about her person becoming more powerful light-wise. Her purple eyes are intense. Wonder Woman nods over, and falls in line, accelerating over to attack speed, using the moon's surface for partial cover as the gruop rises up, getting ready to begin the assault. She flies in flank along Kal, readying to react depending on how the Skrulls deploy. Superman nods towards Natu and then kicks off from the moon's surface with an expression of determination. He extends a fist in front of him as he accelarates to fly towards the Skrull ship. He says through the comlink. "Let's hit them hard. Disable any outer guns that you can see. Try to refrain from puncturing the hull if you can, we have no idea where the hostages are being held. Let's be careful, but let's get it done. Show these beings why it's a bad idea to screw with the Justice League." Captain Marvel takes off from his floating orbit by the Watchtower and fliesto Superman's other flank opposite of wonder Woman he smiles and nods to the pair. As he prepares for battle his fists start to crackle brightly with lightning. He frowns when he realizes that he can't call down his lightning simce he can't utter the magic word while in space. So quiet. So very quiet. As the invisibility cloak fails, making the ship fully visible, there's a flurry of activity. However most of it's inside, directed at fixing the problem that caused the failure. A few bays open up as well, with dozens of smaller crafts coming out of it as well. Wonder Woman calls out, "Here they come! Justice League, ready yourselves!" Calling out a warning as her Eagle Eyes spot what seems to be launching fighters or flying Skrulls, her bracelets going in front of her in ready to deal with interceptors! Wonder Woman holds her gauntlets out in front of her, waiting for the signal from Superman to take action, and otherwise remaining at a level with the others. Superman's super vision spots the smaller ships coming from the larger one. "Alright, the Avengers are counting on us. Let them have it." His eyes glow bright red just before he fires a blast of his head vision to get the Skrull's attention. Then he accelerates towards the smaller ships. Natu flies forward then then, as she knows where the boosters are on these smaller space ships. "I will be keeping the smaller space ships occupied," she says within her green comlink. She is flying through space, arms extended forward. Suddenly, her green light power stretches forward as she pulls up sharply to dodge a firing attack, and the power whips out to reach for the two boosters on the fighter space ship to rip them off. Captain Marvel flies towards the oncoming starfighters. Theres a massive explosion when he's hit by one of the ship's blasters, after the explosion clears it can be seen that the captain had been knocked several yards back but he continues flying towards the cluster with the others. Originally, the ships are doing something else, searching for the cause of the invisibility shield failure, doing rounds to prepare for attacks based on that. When Natu uses her power ring to rip off the wings of one of the fighters, THAT gets their attention. The score of ships outside then fly towards the four Justice Leaguers, one narrowly dodging the heat vision of Superman and they launch a flurry of missiles, along with a barrage of energy weapons! One of them hitting Captain Marvel square on! When he doesn't seem to be more than stunned and knocked back, the bays open and several dozen MORE ships come out as well. Well at least now this is becoming a real 'distraction.' Natu throws up her shields a bit more widely as a few shots bounce off them, grunting at the impact. But she's soon flying and weaving to dodge them, which uses less power. Tendrils of green energy lash out as she reaches for another pair of engines to yank them forward, throwing one of the engines toward the ship. It will only cause minor damage, nothing major at all. Wonder Woman is flying evasively through the air as the ships start their strafing run, her gauntlets out in front of her. What Diana does is tries to lash out with her lasso, trying to grab it over along one of them to send it smashing over into another series of fighters if she can, but mostly flying defensively. You know what the great thing about super speed in space is? No wind resistance. Superman becomes a literal red and blue blur as he bounces from ship to ship, taking a note from Natu and looking to disable their engines. He pauses for a moment to stand still, sending an arc of heat vision from left to right. Then he's impacted by a few missles as he crosses his arms over his face. Once the smoke clears, he's still there, though. Captain Marvel sighs asat the fact that he was so in awee of the fact that he was fighting alongside his hero Superman causing him to be the first to be hit. He looks up at the vast array of ships leaving the mothership, "Alright.. no more Mister Nice Guy!" he mutters to himself and then rockets through space like a hellbent coment, having both fists leading the way he crashes into one of the ships and tears his way right on through and turning back to grab whatever is left of the ship but it explodes from the massive collateral damage and sends shards of metal at the Big Red Cheese, "Ok, it didn't take the wisdom of Solomon to see that coming." he thinks to himself with a sigh. As the barrage of lasers fire at them, Natu puts up a green shield at first. It's quite an effort until she takes a different route, dodging the discharges and attacking directly again. Green tendrils of willpower energy lash out at another ship, causing the wing to get ripped off and the ship lies dead in space, albeit without any damage to the Skrull pilot. Wonder Woman, on the other hand, takes a more aggressive approach - this is war after all, and Diana is a warrior. She throws her lasso to loop it around a second ship, swinging it around mightily into a second ship, the two Skrulls inside using their emergency teleporters to transport themselves out and back to the mothership before they both explode silently in empty space. The explosion itself, near a squadron of an additional 8 ships which were converging on Natu as she was focused on the ship she was fighting, go flying out of control as well from the shockwave of those two ships' explosions. It looks spectacular though! And draws the attention of another ship which fires a beam at Wonder Woman of a newer weapon designed for Kree supersoldiers to induce vertigo! The actions of Superman, however, are a little more disastrous. First, there's the head vision, which cuts through a swath of fighters, causing them to be dead in space. One might be hear the Skrulls radioing to each other, "Have the mothership fire on the blue and red one! He's tearing us apart!" Followed by emergency teleport back to the main ship. They havent even finished the sentence before a squadron of fighters all fire their missiles at the Man of Steel. When the smoke clears and he's still there... they turn to flee back to the mothership before they have to use their emergency teleporters as well! The World's Mightiest Mortal, not wanting to be outdone by the Last Son of Krypton, crashes straight through a series of ships, in one and out the other side, then in another and out the other side of that as well. After doing this to 10 ships in a row, he turns to see them all explode in explodey unison, albeit after the Skrulls on board had just enough time to teleport away as well. The remaining ships turn to try to regroup... or are they. No, they're just getting out of the way of the huge main batteries of weapons from the mothership as it fires a massive energy beam at the entire group!!!! Natu winces when she catches Captain Marvel's actions, "Captain Marvel," her words a whip lash. "If you do not give them time to teleport out, you murder them! Take out their engines." Natu is not a leader, but when her anger is risen, she can grasp control within iron fists if given the opportunity. And her ring still works like a pair of whips, moving to trip wings and engines out as she weaves and dodges, using the skills that the Green Lantern Corps taught her for non-lethal force. Natu is too far away to protect Wonder Woman, though part of her anger at endangering lives is also directed at her. But still, as she zips past a fighter space jet, she extends one of those green energy whips to try and snatch Diana, to pull the Amazon toward her with fast speed. Wonder Woman smashes her way through one duo of ships, the explosion backlighting the area as she whirls her way through the pair then. This is war, and unfortunately.. With luck the pilots will be able to eject. If not, she will not mourn them. And then as the Kree vertigo weapon hits her, her eyes flash wtih a bout of disorientation, right in time over to see the huge beam cannons of the Skrull Super Ship readying to blast, her eyes flashing, "Merciful Minerva!" In her state of disorientation and vertigo, there's no way she could be able to get away! And so, Diana moves to bring her gauntlets over together, whispering a quiet prayer to Zeus to protect her and that the Gauntlets forged by Hephaestus will see her through the fire one final time! SHe crosses them over in front of her body, the force field of them that appears at such rare times of desperation protecting the front of her figure as the cannons seem to be charging! The essence of a hero is not how powerful you are, but the strength of your character and your selfless actions. Clark had spoken something similar to the Dolls when they asked about becoming heroes, and it is this sentiment that spurns him on to do what he does next. When Diana is in the sights of the large laser from the mothership, just as it fires, there is another streak of blue and red and he is floating in front of her, his body tensing, ready to take the hit that was meant for her. Captain Marvel gets yelled at and erks then he looks at the cannon in awe and then over to Wonder Woman. He sighs and flies over to her. He extends his hands out with his back to the cannon blast he smiles to the Amazon, "What would the Gods that grant me their power say if I fail y protect their gift to humanity?" he closes his eyes and braces himself fully intent on taking the blast square on then he sees Superman and blinks guessing they had the same idea. Even with having two of the most powerful beings around as human shields, the energy cannon hitting would still do quite a bit of damage to Wonder Woman, even with her bracelets repelling some of the damage - the beam's just too big to deflect! Not that Diana isnt powerful enough to handle the output of the weapon. Maybe she is. Maybe she isnt. It looks like we'll find out, dear readers! ... That is, if Diana was still in the path of the beam. ... Fortunately, whether Diana would be able to withstand the weapon's output or not will have to be figured later. Because at the last second, right when the beam hits Superman and Captain Marvel at the same time, who fly in the way to protect Diana, Natu does something a bit different and more strategic, yanking Diana out of the way with a green energy 'lasso' of her own. The weapon itself does a number on both of the heroes. This weapon was not one which the Skrull had even planned on using! The only had it on the ship in the event that the Shi'Ar showed up with problems with them being in the area! It's easily able to take down, and possibly kill, even the strongest members of the Imperial Guard, after all. Fortunately, Superman and Captain Marvel survive, although it feels like each of them has been hit by an entire planet in the process, causing their entire worlds to spin around from how much energy that weapon hit them with! The weapon uses so much energy that it takes a full minute to recharge. But when the ship gunner sees that the two heroes were not totally obliterated, he does indeed warm up the weapon for a second, hopefully fatal blast! Natu lets out a cry of surprise, and then a growl of rage as the heroes crazily jump into the path of destruction and take so much damage. "Wonder Woman, cover me!" Because suddenly, the Green Lantern is doing something a little crazy herself! She's charging for the gun, and she is going to rip that canon apart from the inside out if she has to! She blurs as she moves, turning her will into a finely sharp blade as she cuts through the nothingless of space. Suddenly appearing around her are a number of cutting blades, overly large for nromal surgery...but blades meant to slide apart mental. Doctor Natu is here to visit, house call time! Wonder Woman is yanked, and then sees the two men flying up to desperately.. Take the blast. She just sighs, and there's a half playful smirk then, despite the desperate nature of things.. And she immediately goes to cover Natu, going to fly along towards the interception path, intent on making herself the more obvious target for any fighters or point defense weapons, her bracelets flashing out as she fights off the last vestiges of disorientation and readies herself to defend her comrades! Superman had never before felt anything like it. He is knocked backwards towards the sun, his body spinning end over end from the impact of the weapon. For the moment, he doesn't stop himself. Perhaps the blow has temporarily knocked him out.. Captain Marvel gets struck full on by the massvive cannon and as the destructive force washes over him. His body somehow endures but its sent spirally out of control into space, his eratic tumbling sends him on a collision course with the Watchtower. He's too duzzy to right himself and his first thought is to press the com in his ear, "Superman.. Diana.. are you two okay?" then his bodsy hits the Watchtower with so much force that it damn nearly knocks the massive station out of it's orbit and the Big Red Cheese bounces off the metal hull that he continues to tumble his way towards Earth. Aw man Billy, and they just got the station back in proper orbit too! Oracle's so going to have a word with you. Meanwhile, Natu flies at the main gun, sending out emerald blades to slice it like a hot knife through butter before it can get off a second, possibly killing blast at either Superman or Captain Marvel! However, so focused on the task, she fails to notice two fighters convering on her as they fire their smaller, but still deadly energy weapons. And that's when Wonder Woman flies in the way to deflect the laser fire, having the energy weapons hit back at the fighters and giving Natu her clean shot at the gun! Captain Marvel and Superman's backwards tumble stop soon afterwards as everything stops spinning for both of them. The remaining fighters are retreating to the ship's bay, having been rather ineffective outside in space battle! This does give an opening as well as the fighter bay doors open (rather than ripping holes in the side of the ship (which could cause explosive decompression possibly) Natu slices the large gun apart! As the space jets retreat, she starts to fly alongside of the ship, slicing and blasting apart guns without doing structural damage tot he ship. In the comlink she says with a tense voice, "We are fine. Wonder Woman, can you get them? I'll make sure the docking bay doors do not close." Even as she slices away at guns, a green light energy is reaching out to set a 'jack' up of sorts at the docking bay doors to prevent them from closing. Wonder Woman acknowledges the suggestion from Natu as she turns towards the other fighter, lifting her braclets to prepare to deflect incoming fire. Meanwhile, Superman finally stops flipping end over end and rights himself with a faint groan, bringing a hand to his forehead and shaking it as if to clear it. As he floats there, the rays of the sun beam down on him and with each passing moment, his energy returns to him as well as healing the damage done to him by the laser. "What's our status?" He asks through the com, having been a little out of sorts for a bit. Captain Marvel burns up upon re-entry with the planet and crashes through a building and finally stops when he hits the streets and lays in a massive crater. He lets out a loud groan, "Holy moley.. that was the worst!" he digs himself out of the crater and rubble stumbles into a secluded ally and says Shazam." when the lightning strikes him reverting the hero back into young Billy Batson the boys looks around and after being satisfied that no one is looking says, "Shazam!" and Captain Marvel steps out of the smoke cloud. He smiles as he flexes his completely healed body. He looks up in the sky and flies straight up at hypersonic speeds and doesn't stop for anything he uses the momentum that he's built up to throw a devastating punch at the mothership. The status seems to be that Natu is holding the bay doors open with a green energy 'jack' of some sort. Kyle will have to show her some more creative ways like an actual car jack, but Natu probably isn't around cars all that often anyway. :) Meanwhile, Wonder Woman is deflecting fire from any remaining fighters that havent already retreated into the fighter bay. Meanwhile, as Superman flies to reconnect with Natu and Diana, Captain Marvel comes blazing from Earth, and hits into the ship with tremendous force, causing the entire spaceship to shake around in space! Natu has taken out countless weapons as she flies alongside the space ship to avoid being hit. She pauses outside the docking bay doors and has to lift upward quickly to avoid getting shot to pieces by the ships docked in the bay...where they Skrull inside cannot get out of the ships due to the bay doors squealing in space to be closed. Wonder Woman flies along as the ship seems to be smashed, and she watches as it seems to be (to her sense, at least) drifting in space. She'll be moving to help mop up the remaining fighters, and acting on Overwatch if needed. Fully regenerated by the sun's rays, Superman streaks back towards the group. As he slows to a stop at the door that Natu was keeping open, he speaks again over the com unit. "We don't have much time to waste. Let's finish this." He places his hands on the airlock door and forces it back to an open position. "The main cannon is destroyed. Lets go." The ships waiting to be launched are treated to powerful blasts from his heat vision. Captain Marvel flies into the open hanger doors and reaches out to grab one door and holds it open he looks over at Natu, "I got this.. save your ring's juice." then he smiles when Superman joins them in the hanger, "So uh.. whats the plan now?" he looks around for Diana When the heroes enter the ship through the fighter bay (after Superman quickly heat visions all the fighter craft on the ground still), the four of them might notice that there were also a couple of battle-ready mechs which were going to be used to attack when the heroes breached. Those mechs are currently on their side, almost as if something hit the ship hard enough to shake everything inside. Oh yeah, that would have been Billy. The Skrulls are not in the hangar - mainly because of Natu, and now Superman, holding the bay open, meaning no atmosphere currently in the hangar bay, especially since the force field which keeps the atmosphere inside is currently not on (given the manner in which Natu kept the hangar bay open). There are a few fighters still outside, though, firing inside, although they've been reducing their fire since half the time they'd fire, Wonder Woman's bracelets reflect the weapons fire back at the ships. Natu then goes inside after the firing has stopped. The security system is soon blarring as the ship starts to go into a security lockdown. She goes to clean up the mess, sliding it all to the side as she heads toward the inner doors. She speaks into her ring then, << What is your status Kyle? We have proved highly distractive, and are currently at a docking bay. >> Wonder Woman goes to help with the smashing, her bracelets deflecting fire back at the shooters, "It may be time to ready the extrication of our compatriots." She scans the area, looking for further enemy reinforcements, and to Superman for orders. Superman steps inside after the Green Lantern. "Hold this position." He looks over at Natu. "What's the status of the other team..I think we've done all we can as far as keeping them busy." He then says to the team as a whole. "They may be coming to this location, prepare for an assault." Captain Marvel smiles and shrugs, "Always ready" then he looks at Natu, "Hows your ring doing?" then he looks at Diana, "How're you Wonder Woman?" he rubs the back of his head, "I hit the Watchtower pretty hard, will it be able to right itself back nito proper orbit?" Natu hears the response in Kyle's voice: << Natu, we've found the hostages. Iron Man has managed to disable their systems and give them a little infection via a virus. We're on our way out. >> She smiles thankfully, then nods to Captain Marvel, "Just fine. They found hostages, and the security alert was due to Iron Man. This ship should be disabled shortly, so we can hold it captive. We just need a place to hold an almost city large ship filled with Skrull." That should be fun. "I just hope the Skrull are willing to negotate with us, with us having this many Skrull hostages." Wonder Woman glances over at Natu softly, "That is unlikely, but one will hold out hope." She glances over and hovers in place as the communication comes through. "I doubt that the inhabitants of the ship will be willing participants either, for even if they retreat, they will have to face the consequence sof their failure." While seh does not know the Skrull culture, she is guessing it will be the same way for any warrior race that has suffered such a failure. Superman crosses his arms over his chest. "Why can't we leave it in orbit? I'm sure that Iron Man or Oracle could find a way to keep it running at minimal power. Just enough for life support and whatever they have as far as food dispensers. Every other system can be shut down, except for minimal propulsion so they don't fall from orbit. We can hold /them/ hostage that way. And the Watchtower could keep an eye on them." Captain Marvel nods in agreement, "Couldn't we just magnetize the ship to the Watchtower and disable everything except lift support." he gestures to the mech suits, "We can just toss those into the sun along with any weapons they might have." then he pauses and adds, "I once heard of a place called the Negative Zone where they keep a long of dangerous criminials, I think its the Fantastic Four's version of the Phantom Zone." That is when gravity support is suddenly removed. The lights then start to flicker and die, backup lights coming on only. Life support still remains however, and Iron Man then speaks in into the comlink, the one the elite recruit team has: << This is Iron Man. I have did security lockdown except for the hallway between the engine room and where the captives are held. Once an escape route is decided on, I will lift security lockdown for it, and then resecure it entirely. I am setting up a system for me to remotely control the base from Earth. Thank you all for your assistance in making this mission a success. >> Wonder Woman glances over at the others, waiting with her gauntlets in front of her, "We can't leave the ship in orbit for eternity. And if the Skrulls are exchanged as hostages, it is likely that they will be executed by their own kind for their failure." Her words are curt and exhausted. She is merely stating what is likely if they are 'exchanged' to their home to remind of what the consequence would be. Superman states with his arms still crossed over his chest. "Then that is their fate. We didn't ask to be invaded, Diana. If their superiors execute them for their failure, then that is of no concern of ours." Cold blue eyes regard the Amazon impassively. "If thus is the way of their culture then we must respect it." Wonder Woman smiles over at Superman then, "OF course." She nods over, "For now, let's make sure that this craft is in a stable orbit. And then get out of here." She takes a breath, and closes her eyes. "I cannot let that happen," Natu says seriously toward Wonder Woman, her expression one of sheer stubborness. "If they will assassinate their own kind, I will not send them over in trade." And that kills that wish immediately, even before the possibility starts. She shakes her head at Superman, "I cannot let such massive lost of life happen, do you realize how many souls are on this ship? That's...mass murder." The horror reflected in Natu's stubborn eyes is clear. "I will figure out something." She doesn't ask for help again. Superman looks at Natu. "I would imagine your job as a Green Lantern wouldn't let you. I understand that. However, my repsonsibility is the protection of Earth. If you can find another way...that's great. But the Justice League is not in the business of dictating to cultures what they can and can't do with their own subjects." Wonder Woman nods over at Superman and takes a breath to look at Natu, "Yes. From this point on, the Justice League has fulfilled it's mandate. The decision of what to do with the Skrulls will be left to a more appropriate court. Those of Earth and the Green Lantern corps as appropriate. They will be delivered to the appropriate authorities for judgement." She is exhausted as well. Natu's expression is rebellious. "I will not sleep if I was responsible for hundreds of deaths, but then again, I'm an alien, perhaps you do not feel the same about those not of Earth." She then moves to leave, flying off to contact Oa and report in about the large haul to intergalactic peace and to see what more information she can get on Skrull culture.